Email 101

A free course with simple guidelines to help you write more professional emails

I'm Josh, a published author, technical writer, MBA, engineer, app developer, project manager, and consultant.


An example from Lesson 3—Crafting an effective email body

This is an example demonstrating how to organize a business email using three layers in succession—Full story, Skimmable layer, Snapshot layer. If you prefer, you can download this example as a PDF:

Not enrolled in Email 101 yet?

Email 101 is completely free. Learn more or sign up and get your first lesson now!

Full story

This is a draft that is unorganized and almost completely unformatted, but that has all of the detail needed. The content is fine, but the organization is sparse.

To: Susie Smith , Frank Jones , Angela Thompson , Anthony Anderson
Subject: ACME, Corp.—Shopping Cart Project—Tasks for December 15 GoLive

Hi ACME Team

Thanks for your time today. We had a productive meeting and covered a lot of ground.

We need to do three things to get this project live on time. First, we need to confirm that Frank and his team will be finished testing by this Friday—we can’t move forward until they finish testing because it would be a waste of time. Second, it’s really important that we have all of the data moved over before we go live because users are expecting their history to be there whenever they log in. So Angela’s team has to complete the data migration by the end of the day on Monday. Third, Anthony has to finish training all of our administrators and support team on the new system by Monday so they can field questions on the go live date.

If we accomplish all of those things this week, we will be ready for GoLive on December 15.

All the best

Josh

Skimmable layer

The Skimmable layer adds organization and formatting. The content is almost identical, but it’s organized and formatted in a way that makes it skimmable. The reader can get the same information with a quick skim as they would have gotten by reading every word of the Full story above.

To: Susie Smith , Frank Jones , Angela Thompson , Anthony Anderson
Subject: ACME, Corp.—Shopping Cart Project—Tasks for December 15 GoLive

Hi ACME Team

Thanks for your time today!

Critical tasks to ensure GoLive on December 15

We need to do three things to get this project live on time:

  • Frank and his team need to be finished testing by this Friday, December 4.​ We can’t move forward until they finish testing because we may have to do rework if they find issues.
  • Angela’s team has to complete the data migration by the end of the day on Monday, December 7.​ All of the users expect their history to be there whenever they log in, so it’s really important that we have all the data moved over before we go live.
  • Anthony has to finish training all of our administrators and support team on the new system by Friday, December 11.​ They need to be prepared to field questions from users on the go live date.

If we accomplish all of those things this week, we will be ready for GoLive on December 15.

All the best

Josh

Snapshot layer

Finally, the snapshot repurposes the final paragraph of the message in the Skimmable layer. Instead of leaving it as the final paragraph, buried at the bottom, it’s moved to the top of the email where it will be visible in the preview pane of most email apps. The signoff is also changed to “Thanks for your time today!” so we’re still thanking Susie for her time.

To: Susie Smith , Frank Jones , Angela Thompson , Anthony Anderson
Subject: ACME, Corp.—Shopping Cart Project—Tasks for December 15 GoLive

Hi ACME Team

As we discussed in our meeting earlier today, here is what need to do to be ready for GoLive on December 15.

Critical tasks to ensure GoLive on December 15

We need to do three things to get this project live on time:

  • Frank and his team need to be finished testing by this Friday, December 4.​ We can’t move forward until they finish testing because we may have to do rework if they find issues.
  • Angela’s team has to complete the data migration by the end of the day on Monday, December 7.​ All of the users expect their history to be there whenever they log in, so it’s really important that we have all the data moved over before we go live.
  • Anthony has to finish training all of our administrators and support team on the new system by Friday, December 11.​ They need to be prepared to field questions from users on the go live date.

If we accomplish all of those things this week, we will be ready for GoLive on December 15.

Thanks for your time today!

Josh

Not already signed up for Email 101?

Learn to write more professional emails that get noticed

Sign up now and get your first lesson—Start with a useful subject—right away!

About Me

I'm Josh Doody. I studied Computer and Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida, graduating in 2003. Then I worked as an electrical engineer for a Department of Defense contractor for a few years before switching to project management and consulting in the software industry.

It wasn't long before I went back to the University of Florida for my MBA (while still working full-time), finishing in 2011.

In 2012, I moved into project management full-time, and have since managed a technical team and many projects big and small.

I'm currently writing Mastering Business Email to help others get paid what they're worth.

You can find me at JoshDoody.com.

Copyright © Josh Doody, LLC 2015. All Rights Reserved